So Swindell composed an email — “Hey guys, I wrote this today, and it’d be fun to play live” — but never heard back from Bentley or anyone else, he told Maxim.com.

But once the two singers got to know each other a little better, Swindell told Bentley the story and sent him the song again.

“He emailed me back and said, ‘That’s a hit song, it’s awesome. I wish you’d sing it with me.’ We just kind of joked around about it forever until finally it got recorded. And now here I am on tour with him, and my seventh single on country radio has Dierks Bentley on it. That’s a dream come true,” Swindell said.

With two busy touring and recording artists, though, finding time to actually record the song wasn’t easy. Or brief.

“It can take a couple of months to get a song how you really want it. [Bentley’s] part didn’t take long. He came in one day and did vocals in three hours, and we laughed a lot. But when you’ve got somebody who’s a hero of yours on a track, you want it to be the best thing possible,” he said.

“Flatliner,” which he co-wrote with Jaron Boyer and Matt Bronleewe, is on Swindell’s You Should Be Here album.